Playing games can improve your eyesight

New Nature Neuroscience study claims gaming can beat 'lazy eye'

Gaming can offer long-term improvements to eyesight, according to a new US study

A new 'Nature Neuroscience' study from the University of Rochester in the US claims that playing videogames can improve certain problems with deteriorating eyesight, such as 'lazy eye'.

The research proves that games improved the subject's "contrast sensitivity" – and that they were able to notice very small changes in different shades of grey – of vital importance when, for example, you are driving at night.

Contrast sensitivity can be affected by problems with aging eyes, such as the condition known as 'lazy eye' (amblyopia) and has previously required surgery and/or glasses as a fix.

Long-term improvements in eyesight

"Crucially, the improvements in this study were sustained for months or even years in some cases," reports the BBC, "suggesting that time spent in front of a computer screen is not necessarily harmful for vision, as has sometimes been suggested."

Researcher Dr Daphne Bavelier claimed that the stimulation and reward systems involved in gamers' necessarily quick responses to visual info on the screen was of massive benefit to the health of the eye.

Dr Bavelier wants to make more use of games to "restore the stereo vision… lacking in people with a lazy eye."